Tuesday, November 20, 2007

I don't know what's up with my thing for raspberries lately. It's almost Thanksgiving and I'm still using a summer berry. I try to buy seasonal and local produce whenever I can and I'll admit that occasional cravings will override my good intentions. Raspberries should be out of season, but the container says they're from California. Even so, I felt slightly guilty for buying them. Just because they can grow them during the off season doesn't mean that they'll actually taste good. This was definitely the case with these raspberries. They looked good but they turned out to be bland. So instead of tossing them into the compost bin, I used them in these quick and easy cream cheese muffins. Right before adding them to my muffin batter I sprinkled a bit of sugar over my raspberries to add a bit of sweetness. I normally use a dollop of fruit preserves to top the muffins, but any fresh or frozen fruit will work just as well.

On a separate note, I want to apologize for my lack of posting lately. I haven't really been baking much during the last couple weeks. I spent most of this weekend preparing for Thanksgiving. Deciding on the menu, cleaning the house, washing the platters, serving bowls, and fancy glasses. I've done most of my grocery shopping and I just need to pickup the turkey and some sourdough bread for stuffing. I made a gigantic vat of turkey stock, a "scarborough fair" herb shallot butter for my turkey and a chunky cranberry sauce. The cheeses have been grated for the spinach gratin and I also made enough pie dough for my pecan tart and pumpkin pie. I still haven't decided if I'm going to make a third dessert. I'll see how I'm feeling later in the week. I still have a lot of chopping, slicing, brining, cooking and baking until T-day so I'll leave you now with a wish for a wonderful Thanksgiving! Have a happy and healthy one!

23 comments:

Mary, I can so relate to your raspberry fever. I love berries too and I normally freeze my raspberries in the summer when they are in season so we can enjoy a few during winter. >I too am seeing raspberries in the supermarkets here but have not bought any. Your muffins give me excuse to take a few of my frozen ones out and give these a try! Hugs!

Well, unless raspberries come from my in-laws garden, all of the ones in the market taste bland year round here. I use a lot of frozen ones! We did plant a raspberry bush, so hopefully we'll have some fresh from our backyard this year!

Your fondness for raspberries is like my fondness for apples - even when they're NOT in season, I eat them year round!! I eat at LEAST one apple each day, all year round; and I never miss a day :0)

no need to apologize for lack of posting - each of your posts is so well-executed and captivating, that I'd rather see a few, phenomenal posts than a lot of mediocre posts (not that ANY of your posts are ever mediocre).

those raspberry muffins photograph so beautifully!! perfect way for you to enjoy your favorite summer berry!! :0)

Yep, it's not just you that's thinking about raspberries... I've been putting berries in everything lately. I picked up a cookbook at the grocery store and there were two raspberry pie recipes. They must be in season where Betty Crocker lives. I use frozen :)

Hope you had a lovely Thanksgiving Mary. The muffins sound really good. I've only just learned how to make muffins and the art of not over mixing. I think the weather must be doind really weird things. We still have strawberries in the garden. In England this is just crazy. Despite the fact we've had several frosts it still doesn't seem to have killed them off.

Raspberries are not summer berries per se, they are also fall berries and are often grown at apple orchards where they can be picked right along side. Their season is May through November depending on the variety so don't feel guilty, these fall ones are quite tasty right now.

yummm! Look at those red jewels! I ate all my raspberries (too hard to resist), but I still have cherries and half a block of cream cheese, so I can make a cheery version (half recipe). Thanks for the recipe!

Mary,I love your blog. Even though, I am not a baker, I am inspired by your baked goods. I know that you don't take requests but with all my heart, I was wondering that maybe I can persuade you to come up with something out of this world, something that I tried at work around the holidays. It was maple and pecan caramel very subtly sweet, not very chewy like caramel but with a hint of saltiness. I hope you will try coming up with something like that. Please, please do...

oh these look so tempting...i just bought some raspberries and i want to do them in a breakfast baked good and i'm having a hard time deciding between these muffins and your raspberry coffee cake...which should i do?

The alpine strawberry (Fragaria vesca) is a cousin of the wild strawberry. It's sometimes simply referred to as alpineberry. I love to bake, cook and garden. My blog is a place to share my recipes and other tiny tidbits of my life.